By Michael NortonSTATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE The Chicago-based hedge fund hiring Michael Travaglini away from the state pension management team survived the pension fund’s downsizing of its hedge fund portfolio […]
State House News Service
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Red ink not unique to MBTA
The budget woes of the MBTA seem relatively minor compared to the fiscal problems currently facing many of the country’s largest transit systems.At a forum on the future of public […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Salem mayor says health care impasse may require ballot solution
By Gabrielle Gurley Unless more immediate steps are taken to rein in accelerating health care and pension costs, municipal officials will continue to triage community services to pay for employee […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Uncategorized
Missing the Scott Brown juggernaut
By Gabrielle Gurley This week, Boston University and The Pew Research’s Center Project for Excellence in Journalism published Hidden In Plain Sight, From Kennedy to Brown. The report dissects national […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
One sad Story
To understand the withered state of democracy in the Massachusetts House of Representatives look no further than the eye-popping comments this week of state Rep. Ellen Story. In years past, […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
New England’s major airports moving to taxi out of the recession
as the economy slowly starts to recover, three of New England’s busiest airports are well-positioned for strong, complementary growth. Boston’s Logan International Airport is already posting passenger gains. T.F. Green […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download
Transparency provision defeated
By Bruce Mohl The Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed an overhaul of the state’s economic development agencies, but rejected by a 21-13 vote a measure that would have required greater public […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Worcester Regional Airport: back from the brink … again?
By Gabrielle Gurley Worcester has its share of municipal headaches, but by this summer city officials will have one less: Worcester Regional Airport. Under the transportation reforms signed into law […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Board games at MassDOT
By Gabrielle Gurley How long will the charade of trying to schedule the Massachusetts Transportation Department’s board of directors to appear before the Joint Transportation Committee continue? Indefinitely, it seems. […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Crazy like a fox? Christy Mihos’s big RMV idea
By Gabrielle Gurley With all eyes on the big dogs in the governor’s race, the underdog can afford to go out on a limb. Christy Mihos, who is challenging Charles […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
The Monitor’s web-first approach
Nearly one year after the newspaper presses stopped rolling at The Christian Science Monitor, editor John Yemma continues to fine-tune the 102-year-old international news outlet’s transformation from a daily into […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Are two jobs in Lawrence better than one?
By Gabrielle Gurley Rep. William Lantigua thinks so. Elected mayor of Lawrence last fall, the Democrat is hanging on to his House seat for dear life. And no one — […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
MBTA employees allege discrimination
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Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Western Mass beats South Coast for rail funds
By Gabrielle Gurley Bay State transportation officials continue to throw everything they’ve got into South Coast Rail , but the feds took a pass, deciding that three western New England […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
All aboard
Sen. Steven Baddour, the co-chair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation, was ticked off. The five members of the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation board of directors had been […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
“Walk-in” contract fails the transparency test at the MBTA
Why did MBTA's single largest contract fail to appear on its board of directors' January open meeting agenda? The MBTA Board of Directors voted Wednesday to exercise the final option on […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Where’s Martha Coakley’s love for the League of Women Voters?
Some debates are more equal than others. That’s one political strategy that plenty of candidates for higher office have embraced, and Attorney General Martha Coakley is no exception. Coakley has […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Uncategorized
Lawrence: The next Springfield?
Two years ago, CommonWealth found civic leaders in Lawrence "Thinking Big" about the city's future. Not anymore. On Wednesday, Gov. Deval Patrick travels north for a closed door meeting with […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Who says the federal stimulus program isn’t working? Not the MBTA
Deficits have continued to plague the MBTA. Going into November, the transit agency was about $25 million in the hole, despite receiving $160 million in sales tax revenues for fiscal […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
No backing off the Green Line extension
If state leaders have to back off any transit projects, the Green Line extension won’t be one of them. Secretary of Transportation Jeffrey Mullan again reaffirmed support for the project […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
An inconvenient truth: Fixing the MBTA’s problems costs $$$
So many problems, so little money. Few people understand, much less want to wrestle with, the MBTA’s financial morass. That’s why safety issues captured the headlines with this week’s release […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
A Corzine warning to Patrick?
According to State House News Service (subscription required), Gov. Deval Patrick was on the radio this morning saying there is "no comparison" between yesterday's New Jersey/Virginia gubernatorial elections (both won […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
All aboard for MassDOT
"This is new, and anything new draws critics." Ever mindful of the less-than-stellar reception his picks for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation board of directors received on Beacon Hill and […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Uncategorized
Harvard panel, Boston police chief Davis discuss the Gates controversy
That human beings profile one another isn’t surprising. But when certain social, class, and cultural norms and values collide during confrontations between police and civilians, those instincts sometimes take on […]
